Cranberry Orange Chicken Casserole and Roasted Broccoli

I love the flavors!

Mix frozen vegetable medley (carrots, corn, peas, green beans) with cream of chicken soup and some sour cream, put in 9x13 pan. Put cooked chopped chicken breast over the mixture. Prepare box of stuffing (if it takes 1 1/2 cups of water, make it 3/4C water and 3/4C frozen orange juice concentrate). Toss into the stuffing some craisins and chopped pecans. Spread the cooked stuffing on top of the chicken and bake. YUMMY! (I think it would be even better with two boxes of stuffing).

Cranberry Chicken Bake

This turned out delicious! We used my mom's fresh cranberry/cherry sauce from Thanksgiving over chicken breasts and baked it. Superb! The kids LOVE the crescent rolls, so I've been doing those every now and then. Super tasty meal!

Lean & GREEN!

Since I started a diet, I've been food focused and inspired to post. This has become of our favorite recipes. This is "Dijon Chicken & Broccoli" from Stacey Hawkin's Time Savor Gourmet cookbook. I LOVE how GREEN it is! Cook up the broccoli in her garlic oil with her special seasoning. Put aside. Then cook the chicken with garlic and sauce of soy sauce and dijon mustard. Let all simmer together, yummy! Sometimes I thicken the juice with a little cornstarch for a "gravy" feel. Super yum!

UPDATE: We didn't like the spinach in it...it is best with just the broccoli and chicken...next time!

Clean Kitchen!

Wow. What a delight to cook tonight! It's so funny, every time I put Chicken Puttenesca on the meal plan, somehow that night gets hijacked and we never actually eat it! I've never even made it before and it's been scheduled at least five times! So even though I didn't marinate overnight and slice the chicken breasts and bake it, we DID eat Chicken Puttenesca tonight, sorta.

I've been blogging about becoming free from being messy at my other blog http://tidy-house.blogspot.com/ and the kitchen "after" pictures are here. Viva Italiano!

Chicken Puttenesca & Go Green Medley

TSG's Chicken Puttenesca is delicious! I can't believe how many vegetables we're eating! I had a few frozen green beans, some frozen peas and frozen soybeans so I tossed them in the microwave and called it "Go Green Medley". I served brown rice with the non-dieter's plates and John is doing so well on his diet that his pants are starting to fall off!

Dijon Chicken & Broccoli

Presenting dinner: TSG's Dijon Chicken & Broccoli. Top pic is what me and the kids ate and the second photo is what John ate (no pasta). This was ok...about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Chicken Green Salad & Roasted Asparagus

Costco has ready to go salad greens-half baby spinach & half green lettuces. Tossed chicken in hot olive oil seasoned with Mrs. Dash, Montreal Steak Grill Spice with salt and pepper. Roasted asparagus as usual-click here for recipe. Used store bought salad dressings, mixed italian and caesar low-fat. Kids ate leftover macaroni & cheese. I can't believe we're eating food that is GREEN!

Chicken, Couscous & Way Too Much Spinach!

Ooops, this was a made-up dinner. A little chicken, a box of couscous and frozen broccoli and a few carrots. I thought I'd be "healthy" and add some green since John can only have "lean and green" for dinner...I used a box of frozen spinach. This was the SPINACH dinner...too much! I could have just used a half of a box and that would have been OK.

Five Bean Soup

Five Bean Soup with chicken was delicious. Sadly I was the only one who liked it. You won't be seeing this dinner again!

Chicken Alfredo Pasta Bake

This turned out awesome and everyone LOVED it! I made an alfredo sauce, boiled up the very BEST whole wheat pasta spirals, cooked up some chicken and tossed into a 9x13 and baked it. I used parmesan regianno (Real Food for Healthy Kids recommends this cheese in a lot of their recipes) and heavy cream in the sauce, I wanted to DRINK it!

I Cooked Again!

WOW! I feel FANTASTIC! I read a list of recipes and Daniel chose this one.

What is it?

Chicken breast lightly fried and baked with a coating of pringles instead of cornflakes and mashed potatoes with broccoli (half & half and parmesan reggiano!) 

The recipes are outstanding!

First off, I had everything I needed to cook tonight's dinner because John shopped for this meal on Sunday. It was quite tasty!  Perfect for what I'm looking for...not junk food and not 'List B' food, I could tell the food was healthy, but it wasn't bulgar and raw carrots healthy. It was delicious and edible!

I didn't make a big deal about it...the kids knew I was cooking. Daniel crunched up the Pringles for me (I know, they qualify as junk food, but we got the reduced fat!) The recipe was very easy to follow and next time I make it I'll be much faster.

I was expecting flat out rejection and "I'm not going to eat that" (which may happen tomorrow when I serve the chili) so I was pleasantly surprised when I started eating, so did they! Here's how it went with my picky eaters...

Before we sat down, Daniel was saying, "can I eat yet? hurry up"

then

"Mmmmmm"

and

more "mmm"

and

later

"I kinda like the chicken"  (VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Sarah started with "ummmmmmmmm" and then decided she didn't like the chicken or the meal. And she's the one who likes broccoli! Sticking to my guns, I told her she could make herself a pb&j.

BUT

the very BEST part was that when Carole came over, I had good food to offer her (knowing she probably had not yet eaten dinner)!!!!!! THIS was very rewarding and a satisfying feeling! She said "mmm", too!

It is so great eating REAL food!